Federal investigators looking into kickbacks in the orthopedic device industry have apparently set their sites on another target â€“ doctors who received these illegal incentives. The physician investigation is just the latest chapter in the governmentâ€™s ongoing probe of the financial arrangements often made between medical device makers and the doctors who use their products. So far, the kickback investigation has uncovered excessive consulting agreements, lavish trips and other perks the makers of hip and knee implants handed out as rewards to surgeons who used their products.…

DePuy Orthopaedics, a unit of Johnson & Johnson, warned last week that its ASR artificial hip implant appears to have a high early failure rate in some patients. This warning came months after DePuy announce it was phasing out the ASR for declining sales.…

European health regulators will be conducting a review of 40,000 metal-on-metal hip replacements over fears that the devices could cause non-cancerous tumors and tissue damage. An official with the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) told the Sunday Times that the review likely means that some recipient of metal hip implants will need to have them replaced.…

A Pennsylvania medical supply company is suing six joint implant manufacturers over alleged illegal kickbacks to doctors. The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Pittsburgh on Monday, alleges that the defendants blocked Intermedics-McCullough out of the market despite selling inferior and more costly products by offering kickbacks â€śfor the purpose of gaining exclusive access to the lucrative replacement hip, knee and joint industry and to the orthopedic industry in general.â€ť…